Glaciers and disasters

First, today have had two disasters:
1) Think I have lost my cd case with ALL my photos from this trip and some cool music discs. Am not a happy bunny. Am going to try my luck with the bus company but am not holding my breath....sob sob sob
2) My ipod has decided now, with a 2 day bus journey ahead of me, that it will wipe all my music from its hard drive.....not sure how i am going to cope......and wouldnt you know even if i was back in the uk, the guarentee would have run out about a week ago, murpheys law (avoiding swear words for your computer system mum!!)

Anyway, am trying not to become suicidal about the above two traumatic events and am only just staying sane because of the cool day (no pun intended) I have had today which, if you are clever, you will have realised was all about the glaciers. Luckily whoever is up there decided I had suffered enough so the sun was shining, the wind chill was slightly less than antarctic and the glacier wa absolutely stunning. Never thought I could spend a day watching ice just be big and there, but there you go, it appears I can! All those 20 hr bus journeys are paying off after all.

Not really sure why I found it so beautiful. I mean it is just a lump of ice, but it is so impressive to see it coming down the mountains and then there is this huge face 4km wide and on average 60m high (reaching 140m in parts) all a beautful mix of blue and white. But it is surprisingly noisy as well....there are nearly always creaks and groans, and then when even the smallest (although i was quite far away so maybe not that small) bit breaks of there is a huge crash. I was lucky and saw a huge bit fall off from near the top and that really was spectacular.

So all in all a good day (despite disasters). And on a completely different note, I have decided that given that there appears to be nothing for it but a 2 day bus ride back to Bariloche, that will be my last bus journey and I am flying everywhere else!

Down south

And from the looks of it, never going to be able to get out, unless I brave a 2 day bus journey...thats what happens when you have a year of not planning i guess. you think ah, it will be ok, i will go all the way down to the bottom of argentina (well, nearly) to a v touristy and popular place in peak season and I wont book a flight out as i am not sure when i will want to leave, i{ll just book one a couple of days before i want one. ha! how daft am i. tried to book a flight today for a weeks time but they are all full until next may (or something...you get the picture!) so looks like i am going to be spending lots of time on buses....but have learnt my lesson and am going to make sure i book the bus tommorrow so i can at least suffer in luxury and not in the lowest class seats i have been travelling on so far as a result of my no-planning strategy.

But enough of that and more of what I have been doing.....principally wildlife related. So I think I left you all when i was getting sadder and sadder in a v cold grey Bariloche with an escape planned to the sun filled shores of Puerto Madryn. And it was indeed sunny and lovely and a very nice little diversion, made all the better by the fact that i met a lovely yank girl with whom I hired a car and then spent the next 2 days driving around gravel tracks singing along to bad latin music and trying to spot wildlife and not run over any penguins, that is once we had finally managed to find our way out of puerto madryn, signs not being high on argentinas list of priorities it would appear.

So, we saw big road runner birds, condors, lots of penguins (and rather disturbing hawk stealing baby penguin incident), an armadillo (handily running infront of the window where we were eating just after margi had said "wouldnt it be good to see an armadillo"), elephant seals (v cool) and 5 condors. Didnt see any whales but that was mainly on account of the fact that we didnt go out on a boat! turns out she has seen loads and the whales werent that many in number and werent being v exciting so decided just to drive around instead. Our most impressive moment came on sunday though....our bus went at 6pm, we left at 10, the worlds biggest colony of penguins outside antarctica was only 2.5 hrs away, no probs we thought. So imagine our surprise when we turned up at the colony to find the journey had somehow taken us 4 hours (neither of us had our clocks nearby) and that we would be pushing it to get back in time! There followed quick look at penguins (ooh how cute, ooh look at the babies....ooh look at that one being murdered by a nasty hawk) and a mad dash (at the sedate speed of 60km/hr as we were on gravel tracks) back foiled at every attempt to go the right way by a complete lack of sign posts ..... grrr. So stressed and tired and dirty finally to make it to the bus station with 3 mins to spare (thanks to nice car hire lady giving us a lift to the station) only to discover we hadnt read the ticket very well adn it actually went at 6.40....oh how we laughed!

So anyway, now after way too many hours on a bus I am now in the lovely little town of El Calafate ready to go and see some glaciers tommorrow..heres hoping it doesnt rain

well its stopped snowing

But has instead decided to rain like you wouldnt believe, non stop, all day. grrr. So glad I have booked my ticket out for tonight for sunnier climes. My hostel is lovely and cosy but there are only so many movies you can watch before you feel like tearing your eyes out. So heres hoping there are still some whales around waiting to be my entertainment for tommorrow!

Its snowing!!!!!

But before i talk about the horror that is Barilloche weather, let me update you on Mendoza

Basically Mendoza was like a little bit of heaven. I was staying at an amazing hostel with some really cool people. The atmosphere was really nice, laid back but funky, I went to Spanish school for a week so i felt like I was doing something useful, and when I wasnt sitting in little cafes or at spanish, I was lying by the pool getting my tan back up to post cuba levels! Hurrah. All in all a very nice spot to spend a few days (well, 12 in the end!) Did manage to do something vaguely touristy....went on a trip to Alta Montana which was hilariously bad. Didnt help that we only got to bed at 5.30, so getting out of bed again for a 7.30 start was not nice.....thus I missed most of the lovely scenery for half the journey as I was asleep. We then spent the day being herded on and off the mini bus at such glorious sites as a v old stone bridge (that as far as i could tell didnt actually go all the way over the river), a ski resort sans snow (where we dutifully took the ski lift up to look at the view, only to find the really pretty mountain obscured by a rather ugly one) and a bridge made out of yellow sediment residue thing (otherwise known as punte del inca for unknow reasons). luckily I was with Lucy and Mel who made the trip fun, but other than that it was a rather uninteresting trip! Did get to stand at the bottom of the 24th highest mountain in the world though!!!!

Had actually been intending on leaving mendoza on the sunday night and booked my bus ticket all nice and in time on the internet and felt v proud of myself. However, you have to remember this is the girl who didnt realise it was the day of her birth, so out of touch is she with dates. So there I was sunday morning writing a few emails when i realised that the ones come in were the 20th.....uh oh I thought, I am sure I booked my ticket for sunday teh 19th. Quick panic and check of ticket revealed that I did book my ticket for the 19th, but this unfortunately was the Saturday! He he. So managed to completely miss my bus out and there were no seats left on that night so had to wait for monday, and in retrospect I am glad I did!

So onto now. Finally made it to Bariloche and it is meant to be this town on the side of a beautiful lake with vistas across to the mountains etc etc. And I am sure it would be gorgeous if I could see further than my feet. Then of course there is teh freezing cold, the constant rain (now tuned to snow) and general all round miserable weather. Was planning on spending a few days in the area walking before heading to the glaciers (a 30hr bus ride or 2hr flight....not a difficult decision) for more walking before heading back north. But the weather forcast seems to be saying constant rain for both areas over the next 10 days so may give it all a miss and head back to walmer climes.....going to be spending long enough in the rain in the uk without doing it here as well! Am v tempted just to go back to Mendoza!!!

Mendoza

Survived my first really long bus journey ... 4 hrs to salta, 3 hr wait, 18hr bus ride to Mendoza ... but it was touch and go for a while. The dvd player broke down so couldnt see the end of the movie i was watching (it was only Hitch, awful movie with Will Smith, but better than sitting there staring at the chair in front!), the food was bad and the tea came ready sweetened with about half a kilo of sugar, but we did get to play a game of bingo which cheered me up no end!

But luckily at the end of this hell (and i had heard so much good stuff about Argentinian buses!) I arrived in Mendoza which is a little bit of heaven. The hostal has a pool, its really hot and the people here are lovely, so have decided to stay here for the week and do some more spanish.....good excuse just to stay put for a while! Unfortunately this does not lead to me having exciting adventures and interesting tales for the blog, but i am getting a good tan, I am sure you will all be ecstatic to hear. Anyway, have to go and pretend to study by the pool now

Bashed and Bruised

Last night had a bit of a sulk and decided that I hated Cafayate (the place I had just riden 4hrs on a bus to get to), there was nothing to do, it was ugly and I hated travelling in general. So in my rather lacking-in-reason strop decided I would leave this morning after less than 20hrs! However, when i woke up this morning the sun was shining, and the thought of getting out of bed for an 8am bus was less than appealing, so ended up staying and am v glad I did as have had a lovely day, albeit one that has left me unable to walk.

So decided to go for a hike to a waterfall as it was a lovely day, first stopping off at a winery (the area is famous for its wine) for a quick tour and wine tasting (who says 10am is too early for wine!) Then set off on the walk. Now the nice man at the tourist info office had told me it was 6km before you reach the 2hr walk to the waterfall and that i should get a taxi. but me being me thought 6km, ha, nothing, And off i set. how foolish was I. &km is quite a lot, especially when the sun is hot and it is up a slight incline. Nice walk though through wine fields....had to be some redeeming features!

So finally arrived at the start of the waterfall walk, had my lunch (2 steak sarnies and my new favourite things.....alfajores....2 shortbread biccies sandwiched with dulce de leche and coated with chocolate...yummy). So, a little bit rested i was about to start off when up pulls a taxi and out fall 2 irish lads looking fresh as a daisy, and lucky they did too or i could still be wandering around the river bed now!!! To say the walk is a little unear is an understatement and more than once i wondered what i was doing as I hauled myself up rocks, forded the river and pushed my way through pampas grass (giving me cuts worse than paper cuts ...ouch) and all at the speed of light as the boys were only on day trip. Didnt dare leave them though as they were v big help getting me anywhere! Was a really fun walk though despite being a little scary, rather adventurous and leaving me seriously sore! Best bit though was that the boys had arranged a taxi for the return which was a god send. And you will probably realise by the fact that i have forgotten to mention the waterfall until now that it wasnt really up to iguazu falls!!!

Then, in this adventure packed day, we all hauled ass on a quick tour of the rocks around the area, after stopping for a wine ice-cream....mcuh raved about in guidebooks but not really v nice! Anyway, nice tour, good to hang out with the boys, but seriously over rocks now!!! You will be grateful i have spared you photos of such delights as the frog, the priest praying and the monkeys face

Am leaving cafayate tommorrow but not sure where to go next.....will keep you posted

Oh, and have discovered I know nothing about Argentina...our guide asked me which famous Argentinians I knew, and i could name 2 - yep - maradonna and evita!

Adventure highs in Argentina

Well we finally got our acts together and did something you will all no doubt be ecstatic to hear, although that was after one of the funniest nights out in a long time. In brief it felt like Butlins, followed by wierd suburban club followed by school disco, so you get the idea. And in full....had heard loads about this street where all the bars etc are and apparently there is loads of live music so after a BBQ at the hostal off we piled into a taxi and found our little way there. And there was indeed lots of bars and music etc so we settled ourselves into one that looked promising, ordered a cuba libre and waited to be entertained. And sure enough, after 15mins on came the band, and what a band. The lead singer had obviously been told once he looked a bit like Michael Hutchinson so was making the most of it, the 2 backing singers chose to neither sing, dance nor wash their hair, and the other guitarrist looked like he should be in poison or something. So you can kind of imagine what it was like....sheer comedy. Well, we enjoyed it!! Then, just when you thought things couldnt get any better, they had some kind of dance off on stage between 3 girls which seemed to be won on the basis of who the massive table of "lads on a night out" fancied the most.

So after that stunning example of argentinian night life (and it was packed with argentinians) we escaped to a recommended club.....only to discover it was buried deep in a posh housing estate (!!!) had more teenagers loitering outside than people inside and was not a place we wanted to spend our Saturday nigth. So back we piled into a taxi, back to the street of bars, where we promptly had some flyer boy tell us about his club, so off we went. And this was when the night got really strange. For some reason we didnt have to queue, but neither did we queue- jump in the normal way. Instead we were taken in through the kitchen and under the bar!!! The man then wanted to take us somewhere dark and about 3 floors up "to explain the club" but we turned down this lovely request and just went to dance instead.....amongst what turned out to be lots of 14yr olds (ish). Hmm....so we finally gave up and went home, but not without nearly not being let our due to our lack of a "yellow ticket"...presumably cause we got smuggled in through the kitchen.....However, our tried and tested method of acting stupid worked and we finally found ourselves in another taxi homebound. And managed to have all that fun for only 4 pounds!!!!

Anyway, as for adventure, have since been horse riding in true cowboy style (much fun, especially the tea and cakes afterwards) and then yesterday went rafting...hurrah. Great weather, amazing scenery and a rather funny guide who called us his princesses and despaired of us ever stopping giggling long enough to actually paddle....i´m sure he loved it really.

Kate and Emma are bad

Whenever i am with them i end up doing v little but sitting around eating, watching tv or shopping, and this time is no exception! We were meant to be going biking this afternoon but somehow that has been changed for a massive brunch followed by pottering around the shops and internet!

Did have great brunch though with a cool waiter who looked like he had come from a Bond movie from the 60s....we sat on a massive table and had a feast for 18 pesos (3 pouds). The food never stopped coming. Yum

Have also moved to much nicer hostal although did meet 2 scary women in the kitchen....think they are twins and have both dyed half their head/hair blonde and half brown. V ill advised. And while i am on hair, the mullet-as-fashion-statement doesnt seem to be confined to Buenos Aires as previously hoped, so that definately puts the nail in the coffin as far as a hair cut out here goes.....big hair for the next 2 months then!

steak and shopping

Yep. you can tell i am back in Argentina as yesterday was spent eating (including ice cream and steak) adn shopping. I restained, but it was hard as everyone else bought cool shoes for 7 pounds.....just have no where to put them in my rucksack!

Ahhh, civilisation

Yep, finally escaped Bolivia and whilst it was a lovely country, found it rather hard to be in with rather unfriendly people (or maybe it was just me!) so whilst i have fond memories, am now really looking forward to my 7 or so weeks in argentina....bliss

So, whats to tell. The llama gloves ended up coming in v handy as the salt tour was v v v cold, despite the man in the office telling me i didnt need a sleeping bag.....he lies! Tour was actually stunning and as we went on a little travelled route to Tupiza rather than back to uyuni, we went through some really remote and stark areas. We went through some villages and you just had to wonder a) how on earth anyone decided it would be a good place to live in the first place and b) why people still stay there....its a mystery! But anyway, in summary

1st day - all about the salt. Full day driving and pottering around on worlds biggest salt lake plus additional bonus of the train cemetry (yep, Uyuni is sooo dull that a load of rusted trains is the highlight of the town). Really stunning driving on the salt with the clear blue sky contrasting beautifully with white salt....v photogenic as my memory cards show. Also got to watch the sun set over the salt as we were late leaving (theres a petrol crisis here at the moment so we had to wait to buy petrol!) which was easily a highlight, especially as our cooks taught us how to dance bolivian style (jump around and shake your legs essentially) while we were waiting for the sun to finally go down

2nd day - all about the lagunas and the flamingos. Lots of driving, lots of pretty coloured lakes, v v cold night only mitigated by the fact it was one of the girls birthdays so the cooks had made her a birthday cake (blesS) and we cracked open the wine (surprisingly good to say it was bolivian) and the rum (not so good, but cheap!) and played cards into the night

3rd day - random day really - ghost town, amazingly beautiful laguna, hot springs (only after abthing in these did my feet finally thaw out) and cool night in really cute town in the middle of nowhere. Ghost town was also easily one of the coolest things i have ever seen despite the driver being rather confused at one point re the route leading me (and most of the others) to think this was the first time he had driven this route and that we would therefore lose our way in the middle of nowhere and die (mostly just me thinking this last bit!) Luckily this didnt happen

4th day- all about the driving....10 hours in a 4x4 - torture even if the scenery was stunning. Although turned out the driver and cook had more music than just pan pipes and our favourite morning tape (80s compilation played once every morning...had village people on, enough said!) and they were holding it all back for today. We had Brian Adams, we had Mariah Carey, we had Dirty Dancing.....it was like music heaven....yes, it had got that bad!

So that was our salt tour, with the additional bonus that we ended up in small town where a hotel with pool cost less than $3 a night! So spent all afternoon floating in pool trying to feel clean again!

Enjoyed tupiza, did horse/bike/jeep combo tour to see all the stone highlights of the area (am now sick of "starkly beautiful" areas) swam a lot and then hightailed it on the only decently timed bus all week (10.30 only on thursdays! otherwise ALL of the 6 bus companies only went to the border at 4am -not going to happen - or 2.30 -arriving too late for the border to be open!

So am now in argentina, Salta to be precise, have bumped into loads of people i know both on purpose and by accident so am feeling popular and loved, its hot, its friday and we are about to go for ice cream....I love this country!